Media Release: Investment Fund Holding Company Limited (NIF)

Media Release:

Re: Investment Fund Holding Company Limited (NIF)

The PNM administration has offered for sale through the creation of the National Investment Fund Holding Company Limited (NIF), bonds in the amount of TT $4 billion.

Keep in mind, when you purchase a/any bond, you effectively are lending a company or a government money. The bond issuer is the borrower. It agrees to pay whoever holds the bond interest on a regular basis, and then to return the principal on the loan when the bond matures.

It is being advertised that, Citizens can invest from as little at TT $1000, in tranches with fixed rate options from 4.5% annual interest over 5 years, to 5.7% annual interest over 12 years, or 6.6% annual interest over 20 years.

These bonds officially went on sale last Thursday.

The NIF bond is supported by some of the strongest companies, with a collective market value of approximately TT$7.9 billion, including shares of Republic Financial Holdings Limited, One Caribbean Media Limited, West Indian Tobacco Company Limited, Angostura Holdings Limited, and Trinidad Generation Unlimited.

Having stated that, Waajihatul Islaamiyyah (The Islamic Front) is issuing a clear warning that Muslims cannot and should not invest in this offering as it has all the ingredients of a HARAM transaction, in other words it's not a HALAL transaction and Muslims should not participate. This now brings into question was the PNM administration properly advised on this issue? bearing in mind that Muslims number between 7 to 10% of the population. Why wasn't the Muslims consulted and considered in this decision?

The first test an Islamic scholar or fund manager applies when considering whether a company is sharia-compliant focuses on the company’s core business. If the company’s business centers on prohibited activities, the company is rejected.

For this reason, governments of multi cultural and multi religious countries must establish and use benchmarks for determining whether a specific corporation or group crosses the line into noncompliance as it relates to certain sectors of the society.

For Immediate Release:
Date: 20th July 2018

Umar Abdullah
Head of Waajihatul Islaamiyyah (The Islamic Front)
Tel: +18687870765 or +18683656253

PS: Prohibited industries and or businesses include the following:

• Conventional financial services that feature transactions based on interest, speculation, and/or gambling: This criterion means that conventional banks, investment companies, insurance companies, and other financial institutions are considered non-compliant.
• Certain food and beverage industry sectors: Some products in the food and beverage industry are prohibited because Islam prohibits their consumption. Companies whose core businesses involve alcohol, pork products, or other meat that’s not slaughtered according to sharia law aren’t considered compliant.
• Foods and beverages that Muslims can consume are called halal. Forbidden items include.

1) Pork: The Quran (the holy scripture of Islam) prohibits consuming pork and pork-based products (as well as any other meat that isn’t slaughtered according to Islamic principles), so investing in companies dealing with pork-based products isn’t acceptable.

2) Alcoholic beverages: Investing in companies involved in alcoholic products is also banned because the Quran specifically bans “intoxicants.”

• Tobacco: Islamic scholars hold the opinion that tobacco and the tobacco industry and it's activities have been linked to illegal drugs. Tobacco isn’t good for personal health and therefore believe that Islamic standards prohibit investments in tobacco-related business. In the past, tobacco use was a source of some controversy and confusion in the Muslim community. Now, however, most sharia scholars agree that the use of tobacco and investing in the tobacco industry are prohibited. 
• Illegal drugs: Investing in any company or activity that supports the sale, distribution, or use of illegal drugs is also prohibited. (In fact, investing in a way that promotes any illegal activity goes against Islamic law.)
• Gambling: This prohibition means Muslims can’t invest in companies or activities that support gambling. In addition to prohibiting investments that would themselves involve too much risk, this criterion also means that an investor can’t support the construction of a casino; the operation of a lottery; or the promotion of horse and dog racing, Internet gambling, and so on. Leasing an investment property to a company that conducts a gambling-related business is also banned.
• The production of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs): What the West refers to as collateral damage is considered the killing of innocents per Islam, and it’s forbidden. Therefore, sharia forbids the production of WMDs.
• Certain sectors of the entertainment industry: Sharia prohibitions apply to adult entertainment products, including magazines, videos, audio recordings, websites, and all methods of distributing pornography. The same prohibition applies to erotic arts and prostitution. In addition, certain types of non-Islamic music and cinema are prohibited. Islam considers all these to be harmful to society. Therefore, an investor can’t put money into a venture that involves products or businesses in these fields.
• Cloning: This example demonstrates a crucial point: governments must continually make decisions about the compliance status of new technologies and industries. Obviously, the prohibition against cloning activity is a fairly recent decision, and the prohibition of cloning could possibly change depending on future circumstances.
• Groups of companies with subsidiaries that engage in activities prohibited by sharia also are excluded from Islamic investment funds. For example, consider a hotel (owned by a large corporation) that derives a substantial amount of its income from a nightclub or casino that is prohibited in Islam. Because the profits from this nightclub or casino impact the overall profit of the corporate group, an Islamic fund can’t invest in the group as a whole.

Few companies pass the screening process related to the industry of their core business with a perfect score. In the case of a corporate group with scores of subsidiaries, you can be assured that somewhere along the line, one or more of those subsidiaries engages in prohibited activities.

Media Release: On The Issue of Crime and Our Daunting Social Challenges

Media Release: 

On The Issue of Crime and Our Daunting Social Challenges

255 Murders in 182 days. As these numbers show and with the Increase in crime and public uneasiness, crime, in all its different forms has become a major threat to societal and individual security. There has been less discussion on the role and response of national security mechanisms. Hence, most of the methods used to fight against crime have backfired and fall short of meeting such a challenge. The failure of the Western methods of combating crime and the Increase in impunity of criminals leads one to suggest a solution, which treats criminal activity not piecemeal but in the total scheme of life. 

The Islamic concept of security is a very comprehensive one, more comprehensive than any of the other existing systems. It looks at humankind in relation to the universe and the factors influencing it. It encompasses physical, mental, psychological and spiritual domains as integral parts of an overall societal security system.

Islamic teachings do not merely provide solutions to exceptional instances of criminal behavior, but emphatically focus on measures that halt their existence. In other words, Islam executes as many means as possible to avert temptation. While modern societies flaunt temptation – liquor, pornography, violence, etc. – before the people, a true Islamic society removes the sources of these temptations, and when the need for correction emerges, the punishment is serious and effective. If crimes are not countered with serious punishments, then our society will be in grave danger.

Crime has prospered in modern societies because a completely contradictory approach is followed to controlling it.

Waajihatul Islaamiyyah (The Islamic Front) is therefore calling the government to stamp out all forms of temptation that are prevalent and easily accessible and when the time comes for correction or punishment of a crime, the justice system should not be lenient and should be serious. Sentencing should not be biased and protective of the criminal's rights over those of the victim.

Government must take into consideration the changing circumstances of our society as well as the constancy and permanence of the nature of our countrymen.

Waajihatul Islamiyyah (The Islamic Front) is prepared to seek legal injunctions aimed at achieving human welfare, which can all be referred back to universal principles which are necessary for the well-being and security of our citizens. These universal principles are:

1.    The preservation of life.
2.    The preservation of religion.
3.    The preservation of reason.
4.    The preservation of lineage.
5.    The preservation of property.

Waajihatul Islaamiyyah (The Islamic Front) is working with an objective that would seek to protect our society from the dangers of crime by advocating fairness, equality and justice, also prison and prisoner reform. However, we must bear in mind, the punishment is a recompense for the crime.  It is undesirable to treat a criminal lightly who threatens the security of society with danger. 

For Immediate Release: 
Date: 3rd July 2017

Umar Abdullah
Head of Waajihatul Islaamiyyah (The Islamic Front) 
Tel: +18687870765 or +18683656253